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From productivity to impact

Posted
April 1, 2008

How the SPH became one of the most productive schools of public health in the country—and why it matters to you.

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health broke one of its own records in 2007. It rose to third place among all schools of public health in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, behind only Johns Hopkins and Harvard. The SPH’s annual sponsored project productivity is now $92 million. Not bad for a school that has only about 25 to 50 percent of the faculty complement respectively of the top two schools.

The SPH also ranks first in average award amount from the NIH among the nation’s 40 accredited schools of public health. With an average award of $1.3 million, the SPH is ahead of its nearest competing school of public health by more than double and with fewer faculty members than many other top-producing schools.

At home, the SPH’s extramural research productivity puts it second at the University of Minnesota, behind only the Medical School, but also tops in per faculty member amount of grants and contracts. And it makes for a sound investment. For every dollar the SPH receives from the State of Minnesota, the school generates nearly $10 in sponsored research—essentially new dollars brought to the state.